Intravenous therapy is widely used in medical practice to administer hydration fluids, nutritional fluids, medical fluids, or blood products directly to the circulatory system of a patient. Various types of catheters, such as peripheral catheters, central catheters or surgically implanted catheters, may be inserted into a patient to provide a route for administration of such fluids. During intravenous therapy, it is often desirable to connect to the catheter an intravenous fluid supply system that includes one or more injection ports for intermittent or continuous supply of desired fluids or combination of fluids to the patient.
A peripheral catheter, for example, may be connected by intravenous tubing with a supply of a hydrating solution, such as a saline solution, to provide a flow of such fluid to the patient. In order to provide for supplementing or replacing the flow of saline solution with another fluid, a so-called “Y-site” having a releasable injection port may be connected along the intravenous tubing. When administration of a second fluid is desired, the injection port may be punctured by a hollow needle that is connected with an external supply of the second fluid. After the desired quantity of second fluid has been administered, the needle is then removed from the injection port. The intravenous therapist must then safely discard the contaminated needle associated with the exhausted supply of fluid. Due to concerns about the handling and disposal of medical devices having contaminated needles, it is desirable to provide a device that can be utilized to infuse a secondary supply of medicinal fluid, and can be rendered safe after use.